Existing spreadsheet applications allow at most one header row and one header column to be associated with a group or table of cells, wherein values of the header cells may be employed to reference one or more associated cells. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a structure of a table. Table 100 includes a header row 102, a header column 104, and five rows 106(a) and four columns 106(b) of body cells.
FIG. 2A illustrates an example of a data table 200. FIG. 2B illustrates address tabs with data table 200. Table 200 includes a row of column header cells (row 1), a column of row header cells (column A), and five body rows and three body columns (that span range B2:D6). Like address tabs, header cell values may be employed to refer to corresponding body rows or body columns. For example, in table 200 “Orange Optimism” refers to body cell C5, “Liberty” refers to the body row that spans cells B3:D3, and “Apple” refers to the body column that spans cells B2:B6.
In existing spreadsheet applications, a header cell always refers to a single corresponding body row or body column. A header cell refers to a single body row or body column even if it is merged with a neighboring header cell. In FIG. 2C, the header cells associated with columns B and C in FIGS. 2A and 2B have been merged into a single header cell. In this case, header cell “Apple Orange” in a typical prior art spreadsheet application would refer to a single body column, e.g., the body column that spans cells B2:B6.